editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Award-winning journalist Richard Harris has reported on a wide range of topics in science, medicine and the environment since he joined NPR in 1986. In early 2014, his focus shifted from an emphasis on climate change and the environment to biomedical research. Harris has traveled to all seven continents for NPR. His reports have originated from Timbuktu, the South Pole, the Galapagos Islands, Beijing during the SARS epidemic, the center of Greenland, the Amazon rain forest, the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro (for a story about tuberculosis), and Japan to cover the nuclear aftermath of the 2011 tsunami. In 2010, Harris' reporting revealed that the blown-out BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico was spewing out far more oil than asserted in the official estimates. That revelation led the federal government to make a more realistic assessment of the extent of the spill. Harris covered climate change for decades. He reported from the United Nations climate negotiations, starting with the Earth SummitNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Richard HarrisTue, 15 Aug 2017 14:12:30 +0000Richard Harrishttp://kanw.com
Richard HarrisAmerican doctors have been noticing an increase in osteoarthritis of the knee. They have suspected two driving forces: more old people and more people who are overweight. A study published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences argues that's far from the whole story. Even correcting for body mass index and age, osteoarthritis of the knee is twice as common now as it was before the 1950s. "That's an incredible difference," says Daniel Lieberman , a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and co-author of the study. Lieberman started wondering about arthritis a few years ago as he was compiling a list of diseases that modern humans aren't well adapted to cope with — such as heart disease, lower back pain and nearsightedness. "I wanted to include arthritis in the list, but realized that there wasn't any good data," he tells NPR. So Lieberman asked Ian Wallace, a post doctoral research fellow in his lab, to fly around the country and study6,000-Year-Old Knee Joints Suggest Osteoarthritis Isn't Just Wear And Tearhttp://kanw.com/post/6000-year-old-knee-joints-suggest-osteoarthritis-isnt-just-wear-and-tear
91957 as http://kanw.comTue, 15 Aug 2017 09:01:00 +00006,000-Year-Old Knee Joints Suggest Osteoarthritis Isn't Just Wear And TearRichard HarrisIt's always appealing to think that there could be an easy technical fix for a complicated and serious problem. For example, wouldn't it be great to have a vaccine to prevent addiction? "One of the things they're actually working on is a vaccine for addiction, which is an incredibly exciting prospect," said Dr. Tom Price , secretary of Health and Human Services. He was talking to reporters earlier this week, after the White House discussed the recommendations from a government commission tasked with suggesting ways to cope with the nation's opioid epidemic. But, as is so often the case, there's no quick fix on the horizon for an epidemic that is now killing more Americans than traffic accidents. Researchers have been working on vaccines against addictive drugs, including nicotine, cocaine and heroin, for almost two decades. "Like any other vaccine, you inject the vaccine and you use your immune system to produce antibodies," says Dr. Ivan Montoya , acting director of the division ofA 'Vaccine For Addiction' Is No Simple Fixhttp://kanw.com/post/vaccine-addiction-no-simple-fix
91792 as http://kanw.comThu, 10 Aug 2017 21:15:00 +0000A 'Vaccine For Addiction' Is No Simple FixRichard HarrisScience relies on the careful collection and analysis of facts. Science also benefits from human judgment, but that intuition isn't necessarily reliable. A study finds that scientists did a poor job forecasting whether a successful experiment would work on a second try. That matters, because scientists can waste a lot of time if they read the results from another lab and eagerly chase after bum leads. "There are lots of different candidates for drugs you might develop or different for research programs you might want to invest in," says Jonathan Kimmelman , an associate professor of biomedical ethics at McGill University in Montreal. "What you want is a way to discriminate between those investments that are going to pay off down the road, and those that are just going to fizzle." Kimmelman has been studying scientific forecasting for that reason. He realized he had a unique opening when other researchers announced a multi-million dollar project to replicate dozens of high-profileScientists Are Not So Hot At Predicting Which Cancer Studies Will Succeedhttp://kanw.com/post/scientists-are-not-so-hot-predicting-which-cancer-studies-will-succeed
90164 as http://kanw.comTue, 04 Jul 2017 15:30:00 +0000Scientists Are Not So Hot At Predicting Which Cancer Studies Will SucceedRichard HarrisZika is a scary virus because of the terrible birth defects it can cause. Now scientists have a clearer sense of the size of that risk. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified 2,549 pregnant women with the Zika virus in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories between Jan. 1, 2016 and April 25, 2017. The CDC found that 122 of these women — about 5 percent — gave birth to babies with birth defects such as small heads (known as microcephaly). The federal health agency, which has been struggling to get clear information out of Puerto Rico about Zika, declined to say how many of those birth defects came from Puerto Rico. But Dr. Anne Schuchat , acting director of the CDC, said she is confident that health officials in the territory are now fully reporting its cases to the federal health agency. Puerto Rico is not required to use the CDC definition when publishing its own figures, which have appeared to be out of step with expectations. CDC will blend the Puerto RicoCDC Reveals Sharper Numbers Of Zika Birth Defects From U.S. Territorieshttp://kanw.com/post/cdc-reveals-sharper-numbers-zika-birth-defects-us-territories
89045 as http://kanw.comThu, 08 Jun 2017 20:24:00 +0000CDC Reveals Sharper Numbers Of Zika Birth Defects From U.S. TerritoriesRichard HarrisDoctors can save thousands of lives a year if they act promptly to identify sepsis, an often lethal reaction to infection. Sometimes called blood poisoning, sepsis is the leading cause of death in hospitals. A 4-year-old regulation in New York state compels doctors and hospitals to follow a certain protocol, involving a big dose of antibiotics and intravenous fluids. It's far from perfect — about a quarter of patients still die from sepsis. But early intervention is helping. "Intervention has to be quick," says Dr. Howard Zucker, commissioner of the New York State Health Department. He knows what happens when it isn't. In fact, he says, he has a cousin in the hospital right now who has been struggling to recover from a severe bout of sepsis — hospitalized in another state, he adds. Doctors didn't immediately realize that he was developing sepsis, and by the time they did, Zucker says it was much more difficult to treat. "That's what we're trying to do. We want people to interveneAre State Rules For Treating Sepsis Really Saving Lives?http://kanw.com/post/are-state-rules-treating-sepsis-really-saving-lives
88607 as http://kanw.comTue, 30 May 2017 16:56:00 +0000Are State Rules For Treating Sepsis Really Saving Lives?Richard HarrisSmell, the thinking goes, is not our strongest sense. Our lowly noses are eclipsed by our ability to see the world around us, hear the sound of music and feel the touch of a caress. Even animals, we're taught, have a far more acute sense of smell than we do. But one scientist argues the idea of an inferior sense of smell stems from a 19th-century myth. When neuroscientist John McGann at Rutgers started comparing the sense of smell in rodents to what was known about the human sense of smell, he had an epiphany. "Actually we have a really excellent sense of smell," he says. "There are quite a lot of experiments showing that the human sense of smell is pretty similar to what you can find with a rat or a mouse or a dog." He published a paper about his findings Thursday in the journal Science. McGann wondered why our noses got such a bad rap. He traced the idea back to the mid-1800s, and the work of a scientist named Paul Broca . "He was interested in free will and he had this idea thatWhy Your Sense Of Smell Is Better Than You Might Thinkhttp://kanw.com/post/why-your-sense-smell-better-you-might-think
87769 as http://kanw.comThu, 11 May 2017 18:01:00 +0000Why Your Sense Of Smell Is Better Than You Might ThinkRichard HarrisIf you hear rock star Rod Stewart's husky voice in a radio spot imploring you to get your thyroid checked for cancer, don't be seduced. An industry-backed foundation has been putting out that message, with Stewart as a celebrity spokesman, but it's not based on sound science. No major medical organization recommends mass screening for thyroid cancer. Now, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has added its forceful voice to the mix. The federal oversight group puts thyroid cancer screening in its don't-do-it category, in recommendations published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday. "The harms outweigh the benefits," task force member Dr. Seth Landefeld says. "We would recommend against screening for thyroid cancer in adults who have no symptoms." Landefeld is chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Screening for cancer would seem to be an obvious way to save lives, and often it is, but in this case screening effortsDon't Screen For Thyroid Cancer, Task Force Sayshttp://kanw.com/post/dont-screen-thyroid-cancer-task-force-says
87635 as http://kanw.comTue, 09 May 2017 15:15:00 +0000Don't Screen For Thyroid Cancer, Task Force SaysRichard HarrisA funding crunch for scientific research is creating incentives for scientists to cut corners and even occasionally to cheat. This is one of the findings in a new report about scientific integrity from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Sometimes scientists adopt sloppy practices that can lead to false conclusions. This can hamper progress in science. And taxpayer dollars are on the line. Consider the story of a genetics lab at the University of Wisconsin. Mary Allen was a graduate student in that lab in 2005. One postdoctoral researcher had been laid off because of a funding shortage, and the professor in charge of the lab was scrambling to keep the laboratory afloat by seeking more grants. But Allen and her five fellow graduate students noticed that a grant document didn't accurately describe work that had been previously done in the lab. "We weren't certain it was falsification," Allen says. "It could have been a mistake. The results sounded slightlyHow A Budget Squeeze Can Lead To Sloppy Science And Even Cheatinghttp://kanw.com/post/how-budget-squeeze-can-lead-sloppy-science-and-even-cheating
86562 as http://kanw.comFri, 14 Apr 2017 17:37:00 +0000How A Budget Squeeze Can Lead To Sloppy Science And Even CheatingRichard HarrisIt's been 25 years since the National Academy of Sciences set its standards for appropriate scientific conduct, and the world of science has changed dramatically in that time. So now the academies of science, engineering and medicine have updated their standards. The report published Tuesday, "Fostering Integrity in Research," shines a spotlight on how the research enterprise as a whole creates incentives that can be detrimental to good research. Robert Nerem , a professor emeritus of bioengineering at Georgia Tech, was not expecting that outcome when he agreed to chair the academy committee five years ago. He thought the committee would simply be updating the 1992 standards. "We hadn't had more than a couple of meetings when we realized this wasn't a question of updating, this was a question of taking a brand new look and a very different look," Nerem told Shots. Science had changed. It was global and interconnected. Questions about the reproducibility of results had bubbled up. AndTop Scientists Revamp Standards To Foster Integrity In Researchhttp://kanw.com/post/top-scientists-revamp-standards-foster-integrity-research
86427 as http://kanw.comTue, 11 Apr 2017 20:21:00 +0000Top Scientists Revamp Standards To Foster Integrity In ResearchRichard HarrisMost potential new drugs fail when they're tested in people. These failures are not only a major disappointment, they sharply drive up the cost of developing new drugs. A major reason for these failures is that most new drugs are first tested out in mice, rats or other animals. Often those animal studies show great promise. But mice aren't simply furry little people, so these studies often lead science astray. Some scientists are now rethinking animal studies to make them more effective for human health. When scientists first started using animals in research over a century ago, the animals were not regarded as human stand-ins. Scientists studying rats were initially trying to understand rats, says Todd Preuss , an anthropologist at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University. "As this process went on, people stopped seeing them as specialized animals and started seeing them more and more as prototypical mammals," Preuss says. But is a rat really a generic mammal?Drugs That Work In Mice Often Fail When Tried In Peoplehttp://kanw.com/post/drugs-work-mice-often-fail-when-tried-people
86338 as http://kanw.comMon, 10 Apr 2017 08:37:00 +0000Drugs That Work In Mice Often Fail When Tried In PeopleRichard HarrisSeattle Mayor Ed Murray is being sued by a man who claims Murray "raped and molested him" three decades ago, when the man was 15 years old. The mayor held a brief news conference Friday to deny the allegations. "To be on the receiving end of such untrue allegations is very painful for me. It is painful for my husband and for those who are close to us," he told reporters. "I understand the person making these accusations is troubled, and that makes me sad as well." The Seattle Times has investigated this claim in depth , along with the stories of two other men who also say Murray abused them when they were young. According to the Times report, too much time has passed to file criminal charges, but the same is not true for a civil suit. Earlier in the week, the mayor's spokesman said the suit was politically motivated. "It is not a coincidence that this shakedown effort comes within weeks of the campaign filing deadline," Jeff Reading said in a statement reported by The Associated Press Lawsuit Alleges Seattle Mayor Ed Murray Raped Teen 30 Years Ago http://kanw.com/post/lawsuit-alleges-seattle-mayor-ed-murray-raped-teen-30-years-ago
86298 as http://kanw.comSat, 08 Apr 2017 14:41:00 +0000Lawsuit Alleges Seattle Mayor Ed Murray Raped Teen 30 Years Ago Richard HarrisThe astronomer Carl Sagan said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Last week, a physician made the extraordinary claim that he had an effective treatment for sepsis , sometimes known as blood poisoning. Sepsis is a bodywide inflammation, usually triggered by infection, and the leading cause of death in hospitals, taking 300,000 lives a year. So, even a 15 percent improvement in survival would save 40,000 lives — the number of Americans who die on the highway each year, or from breast cancer. Dr. Paul Marik , a well-regarded intensive care physician at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., is the doctor with the extraordinary claim. As we reported last week , he says he has treated about 150 patients with sepsis and that only one died of that often fatal condition (though some died of other causes). The question is how to find out whether he is right — and, ideally, how to do that quickly. Marik's treatment involves a mix of intravenousWhy The Newly Proposed Sepsis Treatment Needs More Studyhttp://kanw.com/post/why-newly-proposed-sepsis-treatment-needs-more-study
85896 as http://kanw.comThu, 30 Mar 2017 20:57:00 +0000Why The Newly Proposed Sepsis Treatment Needs More StudyRichard HarrisCancer can be caused by tobacco smoke or by an inherited trait, but new research finds that most of the mutations that lead to cancer crop up naturally. The authors of the study published Thursday poked a hornet's nest by suggesting that many cancers are unavoidable. The provocative findings by Bert Vogelstein and Cristian Tomasetti at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, have stirred up a heated scientific debate that started two years ago, when they published a report along similar lines. Back then, critics said they were undercutting important messages about cancer prevention. So when these scientists had new results to report, Vogelstein addressed that concern head-on. "We all agree that 40 percent of cancers are preventable," he said at a news conference. "The question is, what about the other cancers that aren't known to be preventable?" Vogelstein, who is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute , explained how he and Tomasetti have refined that question.Cancer Is Partly Caused By Bad Luck, Study Findshttp://kanw.com/post/cancer-partly-caused-bad-luck-study-finds
85571 as http://kanw.comThu, 23 Mar 2017 20:00:00 +0000Cancer Is Partly Caused By Bad Luck, Study FindsRichard HarrisIt's hard not to get excited about news of a potentially effective treatment for sepsis , a condition that leads to multiple organ failure and kills more people in the hospital than any other disease. But there have been so many false promises about this condition over the years, it's also wise to treat announcements — like one published online by the journal, Chest — with caution. The study, from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va., reported some remarkable success in treating patients who were at high risk of sudden death. The story began in January, 2016, when Dr. Paul Marik was running the intensive care unit at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. A 48-year-old woman came in with a severe case of sepsis — inflammation frequently triggered by an overwhelming infection. "Her kidneys weren't working. Her lungs weren't working. She was going to die," Marik said. "In a situation like this, you start thinking out of the box." Marik had recently read a study by researchers atDoctor Turns Up Possible Treatment For Deadly Sepsishttp://kanw.com/post/doctor-turns-possible-treatment-deadly-sepsis
85537 as http://kanw.comThu, 23 Mar 2017 04:01:00 +0000Doctor Turns Up Possible Treatment For Deadly SepsisRichard HarrisBiomedical research and public health are among the big losers in the Trump administration's proposed budget. The proposal promises: A "major reorganization" in the National Institutes of Health, which supports most of the nation's research on diseases and treatments. That includes a cut of $5.8 billion, about 20 percent of NIH's $30 billion budget. "Reform" of funding for the Centers for Disease and Prevention, which works to prevent, monitor and combat disease outbreaks. The budget mentions a $500 million block grant to states. An additional $500 million for the Department of Health and Human Services to "expand opioid misuse prevention efforts and to increase access to treatment and recovery services to help Americans who are misusing opioids get the help they need." Investment in "mental health activities that are awarded to high-performing entities and focus on high priority areas, such as suicide prevention, serious mental illness, and children's mental health." No specifics areTrump Administration Proposes Big Cuts In Medical Researchhttp://kanw.com/post/trump-administration-proposes-big-cuts-medical-research
85224 as http://kanw.comThu, 16 Mar 2017 14:26:00 +0000Trump Administration Proposes Big Cuts In Medical ResearchRichard HarrisChemotherapy remains one of the mainstays of cancer treatment, but these harsh drugs are slowly being edged aside in medical research, as new treatments, like immunotherapy, grab the spotlight. Still, this is not the end of the road for chemotherapy. For one thing, doctors are coming to realize that some of these drugs are useful for more than just killing cancer cells. Dr. Robert Comis , a professor and oncologist at Drexel University, had the first inkling of this phenomenon 30 years ago, after he ran a test involving radiation therapy along with just two cycles of chemotherapy — far too few cycles to be truly effective. Even so, the patients did much better than he'd expected. "The only explanation was there was this large effect that involved the whole body," says Comis, who also co-leads the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group in Philadelphia. Chemotherapy wasn't simply killing cancer cells, he realized; apparently it was stimulating the immune system, too. And that meant these oldOld-Style Chemo Is Still A Mainstay In The Age Of Targeted Cancer Therapyhttp://kanw.com/post/old-style-chemo-still-mainstay-age-targeted-cancer-therapy
85046 as http://kanw.comMon, 13 Mar 2017 08:51:00 +0000Old-Style Chemo Is Still A Mainstay In The Age Of Targeted Cancer TherapyRichard HarrisWhen you pick up a newspaper and read a story about the latest results on breast cancer, autism, depression or other ailments, what are the odds that finding will stand the test of time? The answer, according to a study in the journal PLOS One is: flip a coin. Only about half of the medical findings reported in 199 English-language newspapers actually turn out to hold up when tested in further studies, the study found. And sorry, dear reader, you're not likely to hear about those refutations. This is partly the fault of journalists, who are always on the lookout for new and unexpected findings, which science and medical journals happily highlight and promote. "But I think the fault is also on scientists," says Estelle Dumas-Mallet, a biologist at the University of Bordeaux in France and lead author of the study. "I think a lot of time they are so excited about their results they get carried away." She and her colleagues plucked out several thousand journal studies to examine. ToReports Of Medical Breakthroughs Often Don't Prove Outhttp://kanw.com/post/reports-medical-breakthroughs-often-dont-prove-out
84755 as http://kanw.comMon, 06 Mar 2017 18:03:00 +0000Reports Of Medical Breakthroughs Often Don't Prove OutRichard HarrisOne of the great treats of following an Agatha Christie mystery (my favorite being Hercule Poirot ) is that you know there will be an "Aha!" moment at the end. The fastidious, mustachioed detective will pull together all the disparate facts and present a compelling answer. I'm frequently reminded that science doesn't work that way. The latest case in point is an article published Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that sets out to explore a trend in colorectal cancer among younger Americans. More than a decade ago, scientists noticed an odd quirk in the data: While overall rates of colorectal cancer have been falling dramatically since the mid-1980s, there's been a steady uptick of this disease among people younger than 50. The numbers are small. Cancer incidence is creeping up by 1 or 2 cases per 100,000 people under 50. By way of comparison, the disease rate among older Americans has plummeted by more than 100 cases per 100,000 people. And the vast majority ofWhy Are More Young Americans Getting Colon Cancer? http://kanw.com/post/why-are-more-young-americans-getting-colon-cancer
84496 as http://kanw.comTue, 28 Feb 2017 15:09:00 +0000Why Are More Young Americans Getting Colon Cancer? Richard HarrisMany studies designed to try out new drugs simply languish. They don't attract enough patients, and they aren't completed. That slows medical progress. But here's a story of one study that has bucked that trend — in fact, it is so popular, scientists had to put the brakes on it for a while. The study is called the NCI-MATCH trial. It upends the normal way of classifying cancers for treatment: Instead of categorizing malignancies by the organ where they first appear, this method of sorting focuses on particular mutations in the genes of cancer cells. "Instead of thinking of a breast cancer treatment or a lung cancer treatment or colon, it looks at the different mutations that occur in the tumors," explains oncologist Robert Comis, who leads the study. NCI-MATCH recruits people who have tried and failed the traditional cancer treatments. People like 74-year-old Nancy Nahmias. "It all started when I was diagnosed with cancer of the liver," Nahmias says. "I was put on chemo, which IAdvice From Patients On A Study's Design Makes For Better Science http://kanw.com/post/advice-patients-studys-design-makes-better-science
84328 as http://kanw.comFri, 24 Feb 2017 16:42:00 +0000Advice From Patients On A Study's Design Makes For Better Science Richard HarrisThere's a lesson about one of the testosterone studies released this week that has nothing to do with testosterone: The study on how testosterone affects anemia was designed with an ethical lapse that nobody noticed until the study was complete. That's surprising because it was designed and carried out by a couple of dozen of well-regarded scientists. Their protocols were reviewed by 12 university institutional review boards, whose job is to evaluate the ethics of an experiment. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health, and the trial was overseen by a watchdog data safety and monitoring board. But all of those safety features fell short this time. A reviewer at JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, noticed that participants who were diagnosed with anemia (low iron in the blood) at the outset of the study were not told of that fact. "Abnormal results on this simple blood test could have been an early warning sign of a serious illness which, if diagnosed andResearchers Failed To Tell Testosterone Trial Patients They Were Anemichttp://kanw.com/post/researchers-failed-tell-testosterone-trial-patients-they-were-anemic
84170 as http://kanw.comTue, 21 Feb 2017 21:30:00 +0000Researchers Failed To Tell Testosterone Trial Patients They Were Anemic